Let The Sun Shine In

I overslept this morning.  Big time overslept.  But the good thing is that when I woke, without peeking at the clock, I realized by the light in the room that I was late.  Like the fabled rabbit I was "late, late, for a very important date."  Well, maybe not a "date", but work. 

The days are getting longer, and the past couple days have been beautiful.  Full sun and gorgeous.  Today the sun decided to hide for the better portion of the day, but just when my mood was turning to a darker shade of blue, good ole Mister Sun peeked through and granted me a reprieve for my blah mood. 

I think I have said before that the dark doesn't bother me so much, and it really hasn't been as bad I imagined.  Last year when we arrived (a few weeks earlier than now) we were on the upside and all things were new and wonderful.  This year, while things are still wonderful, they are no longer new, and therefore reality has set in, a bit.  I do enjoy the lighter mornings, they make it a little easier for us, um, more resistant wakers to rise.  I'm not a morning person, putting it lightly, and it takes me a while to become my usual cheerful self.  By the time I leave for work now the sun is up, and I can see the mountains, the moose, and whatever else comes along my way.

Brent has decided to take up a new hobby.  Since he's about all things outdoors, it shouldn't surprise me.  However, he was resistant to it when we lived in Colorado, so it took me a bit off guard.  He's decided to try his hand at fly fishing.  I will say that I'm somewhat relieved, hopefully (with fingers crossed) it will give him a winter hobby that doesn't include dragging me out in the cold.

In addition to his new hobby, he's been keeping himself busy by chopping wood.  He's quite the efficient lumber jack, and all our wood has been chopped, split and restacked.  Now that the task is complete, I have no idea whate he'll do for the remainder of the winter.  Hmmm....maybe I should order him some fly tying gear...

Our tasks for the immediate future include keeping Ches entertained and well exercised, registering for next year's PFD- Permanent Fund Distribution, and enjoying all things that come with being residents of Alaska.  And then there are always taxes to file, of course.  I think I'll leave that particular task to Brent this year.

In addition, I am looking for work.  Additional work, that is.  I am quite happy where I am, but I would like to add some other sources of income to my life.  I have the time, and the patience, so I've been brainstorming.  My dear husband has his ideas of what I should do, but we'll leave them there, as ideas in his ever-storming brain.

I have been fortunate this winter to see more moose than I did last year.  While I haven't had the luck that Brent has, I have been seeing them out and about.  It never gets old seeing them, unless of course they're on the road.  That I could do without.

Time for me to catch up on soaps, and watch a little Jane Austen.  Friday tomorrow.  And more Sassy fun...

The First

Well, it seems it's been a while since I've been here.  I thought I'd have more time, and I guess I do, I guess my time management is the issue these days.  I have been busy, but just doing the good stuff, the fun stuff.  Cooking, taking care of my family and playing with our sweet Chessa girl.

The great news is that the sun is coming back.  It's noticeable now in the morning and in the evenings.  The lack of light in the evening never really bothered me much, but the mornings were a different story.  I was definitely lazier, sleepier in the mornings, and now I rise and (almost) shine with the sun.  But it's nice to see what's lurking on the sides of the roads when I go to and from work.  And the moose are a-movin'.

We celebrated our 1st Alaska Anniversary on January 10th.  We went back and read through the blog posts from our trip.  I remember the stress, the excitement, the sheer panic of the trip.  Looking back, it's the gutsiest thing I've ever done, and now it really doesn't seem like a big deal.  Makes me wonder...what's next for the Kings?  In the present, we are truly enjoying every moment in Delta. 

We love this area.  We've been busy making plans for summer travel, and seeing as much of Alaska as we possibly can.  Last year we spent a lot of time in the Delta area, and we're hoping to expand our travel range this year.  There are so many beautiful places in Alaska to see, I'm wondering what/when/where we'll choose first.  Hmmmm....

This also leaves me to ponder...who (**hint, hint**) is going to be the first to visit us in Alaska???  There's a lot of talk, my friends, but not a lot of action.  Yet.  Come on over....we have a lot of places to see and a lot of things to do.  And a freezer full of salmon to cook for you.

Work is going well for both of us.  We've been spending our time endulging Brent's current WWII infatuation.  We are watching a lot of war documentaries, including the ever-hard-to-swallow holocaust recollections.  I'm personally intrigued by this bit of history.  I think we're both looking forward to a European vacation in the future to see first hand (again, for me) the camps, the devastation, the emotion.

In addition to war documentaries I've been taking advantage of my spare time to do some cooking and baking.  This weekend a made a large pot of ciopinno.  Since I'm relatively new to eating fish or seafood I was impressed that I even decided to cook it.  Ciopinno is a tomato-based seafood stew.  I made ours with crab, scallops, shrimp, mussels and clams.  It looked good, but wasn't really my cup of tea.  Brent, however, loved it.  So guess what he's eating for the next month??? lol.

Saturday and Sunday we got out and soaked up some sun.  It was lovely.  Sunday was warm, balmy almost, which is funny since the rest of the nation is having uncharacteristically crappy weather.   I really hope that means we aren't going to have a crappy summer.  I will really be sad if that's the case.  lol.

So, that's what we're up to.  How about you?  I promise to post pics soon... :)

Back to life...Back to reality

Can you hear it?  The lyrics to the popular 90's song in your head...sing along... :)  lol.  Anyway, It's my first week back at my normal schedule.  I have to admit, I've been a little schlumpy (yes, that's a word...google it...lol) and slow.  But I'm hoping to get back to normal soon.  Very soon.

My job on Ft. Greely ended on New Year's Eve.  Fitting, I think.  Out with the old, in with the new.  Perfection.  As I packed up my things to leave, I couldn't help but feel just a little bit sad.  It was grueling, it was tiring, and don't get me wrong, I'm happy it's over.  However, I did enjoy the work, I liked having lunch with my hubby everyday, and I am going to miss the G's, the Benjamins, the MOOLA!!! lol.  However, as the old adage goes, money isn't everything, and I'm happy to be back at Durham Realty.

New Year's Eve I packed up my desk and headed home, for a long winter's nap.  It was fabulous.  When I woke we ate a nice dinner of moose ribs, au gratin potatoes and bleu cheese coleslaw, prepared by my loving husband.  When the feast was finished we packed up and headed out to Jeff & Courtney's for a little fun in sun moonlight.  When we arrived I kind of wished that we hadn't had such a lovely dinner as the ladies had knocked themselves out and prepared a veritable feast.  Next time... we visited, laughed, enjoyed some lovely caramel chickory and bundled up to enjoy fireworks on a frozen pond, in the middle of Nowhere, Alaska.  It was bliss. 

Friday we just laid around like slugs, did laundry and I cooked.  Yes, this should be documented, I have done so little of it over the past couple months.  It was nice to be semi-lazy and get some things accomplished in the house.

Saturday morning we packed up bright and early and headed for Fairbanks.  Operation Organization was in full swing.  That is until we arrived in Fairbanks.  I have handled the lack of variety here very well, I think.  I tried for weeks/months to order a desk.  Nope.  No cigar.  No shipping to Alaska.  Pfffft.  Jerks.  But I nearly lost my marbles when I tried to find an economical solution to my lack of organization.  To put it lightly,  I was really frustrated.  However, in the end Sam Walton came to my rescue and I found a doable solution.   And we scored a great deal on a leather club chair for the living room.  Which led to the issue of lack of space to haul everything we needed to haul.

Brent had made plans with a friend, Trevor,  to hunt little bunny fufu (sad, tragic ordeal) that evening, so I decided to head back to Fairbanks for more storage goods.  Luckily Brent's friend, Trevor,  is married to my friend, Amy, so I convinced Amy to ride back with me. Thank goodness I did.  She spotted a wily moose that darted out in front of me, in time for me to hit the brakes and avoid his gigantic butt.  Bullwinkle lives!  So, I managed to score some loot and get home, safe and sound, in one piece. 

Sunday Brent set about assembling furniture, burning boxes and other fun stuff.  As you can tell by the photo below Ches was thrilled at the prospect of sitting inside, doing um, about anything.  Lol.  Poor girl.  She did get out in the woods to explore and hunt wascally wabbits, her new favorite past time.  Those poor little rabbits...Oy.

One of the things that I love most about Alaska is the moose.  I could see them every single day and it would not be enough.  They're so large and wobbly looking that it's hard not to love these dopey characters.  They're very large, and so quiet, that you can literally turn around and there they are.  Standing in the driveway.  These two younger bulls seem to be out on a Sunday stroll.  They meandered through the stand of trees in the center of the yard until Brent tried to sneak outside to get a better shot of them.  With the knowledge that he was outside they took off like lightening, big galloping lightening, and one of them totally diggered in the driveway.  Priceless. 

I'm happy to be back to life as it was. 

Sending a prayer to my Grandma Blanche who is recovering from a stroke.  Sending you lots of love and hugs.

Happy New Year!!  Wishing you all a very happy 2010!!

Howdy!  Happy Holidays from Alaska!!  Well, we survived our first Alaskan Christmas.  And I will say despite missing our families we had nearly a perfect day.  Brent and I both worked on Christmas Eve day.  While I was disappointed in that it really worked out for the best, I guess.  Brent headed home early to play with Chessa, and while it's been warm we dressed her up in her new gear, so you could all see how cute she looks!  She looks great in red.  We couldn't buy ourselves new coats and boots, and not treat Miss Chessa to the same.  In all honesty, when it reaches the deeper levels of cold, she appreciates the warmth and protection as much as we do.

Christmas Eve night I made oyster stew and homemade tomato soup.  The oyster stew being a King tradition, and easy peasy for me, I decided to treat Brent to a little taste of home.  That evening we laid around, chatted with family, and opened gifts.  Man, was I spoiled this year.  Brent bought me an iPod (FINALLY) and had it engraved to say - KLK  ALASKA ROCKS!  My sentiments exactly.  In addition he bought me the Mac Daddy of all food processors.  Little does he know I would have settled for a Walmart cheapie, but I got a great one.  I'm sooooooo looking forward to cooking with it.  In addition, he bought me a new lens for my camera.  Ahhhhh...bliss.  I'm stoked.  We took it out and tried it out, but I need a few lessons before I can attempt to capture the auroras and the night sky....soon...very soon.

Brent didn't make out so poorly himself.  I decided to buy him a winch for the ATV since he kept "mentioning" it all summer.  So, come Spring, he'll have plenty to occupy himself with.  In addition, I bought him a game cam.  Well, it turns out he decided to sneak a peek at the shipping list, so he knew all along what it would be.  I have never seen a kid more excited to open a gift.  I think it's already been in one, or two, locations already.  We're both excited to see what's lurking in the woods beyond the house.  Lastly I got him (er, or me) a mini projector.  Since we don't have tv I decided that we should have something fun. So viewing movies, or football games, should be extra exciting here.

Christmas Day was plenty busy.  A friend of Brent's worked on Christmas Day.  She works on base, alone, and wasn't able to make it to the dining hall for lunch.  So we picked up prime rib for all of us, and had Christmas lunch with her.  It was a nice visit, and I got to see a part of the base I'd never been on.  After I was wanded down of course.  They are stringent, and I happily comply.

After lunch we headed to Brad & Rose's for Christmas dinner.  What a treat!!!  Rose treated us to paella, and it was wonderful.  Crab, scallops, shrimp...yum!!!  Can you believe a year ago I wouldn't have touched it?  She also served us a vegetarian African pesto dish with couscous that was divine, made by Quinn, fresh homemade bread, blueberry/raspberry pie and the best bloody mary's I have ever had.  It was a darn good Christmas dinner.  I dare say it will be hard to top.  Not to mention the company, which is always easy and relaxing, oh and fun!

Today we picked up a couple of co-workers of mine that are working on the same project I am.  Since it's ending soon, O was anxious to see a moose.  He lived in LA for 20 years and recently moved to Seattle.  He's not seen a moose, and was happy when we offered to play tour guide.  Brent went out this morning, scouting for moose and hit the jackpot.  We weren't disappointed this afternoon either.  5 moose total, and some wolf, coyote and a mystery (or not-so-mystery) print that comes later in the post.

The weather was lovely and we enjoyed stopping and snapping photos.  I took some nice pics of O so he'll have to remember Alaska by.  O saw his first frozen lake, and he was thrilled.  It's those little things that we just don't think about.  So it's fun to see the firsts through somoene else's eyes.

The moon in the sky at 3:00 p.m. on December 27, 2009.

Bashful bull moose on Donnelly Flats - he still has antlers and I threatened to chase him down and steal them!!

The mountains were out and proud today with just a touch of clouds. 

The above print, or the mystery print, can you tell what it is?  From what we can tell, it belongs to a very large brown bear, or Grizzly bear.  From  our understanding it's rare for them to be out and about this time of year. I'm curious what brought him/her out of hibernation, or if it's the warm temps that are keeping him/her out of hibernation.  I guess we'll truly never know, but it's interesting and I really hope I don't come across him/her. 

This is my final week of the grueling job.  I have enjoyed it, and I have no complaints.  I am looking forward to going back to "real" life, and having homecooked meals, a clean house, and clean laundry.  I've been, um, slacking the past couple months. 

Wishing you all a great week...and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I keep expecting the "newness" to wear off.  You know, that giddy feeling you get when you are about to embark on an adventure. 

This time last year was hectic, stressful, and sad.  We were selling off, donating, or packing up, for storage and travel, all the things we owned.  Which in hindsight, was entirely too much stuff.  UGH.  I remember feeling sad to see "my stuff" going home in the hands of strangers, family, friends. 

We were excited, scared and nervous.  Ready to tackle the Last Frontier, not having a clue what lie ahead of us, in miles, road conditions, and plain, old gumption.  Driving the Alaska Hwy is not for the faint of heart.  And especially not in January.  Many others before us have done it, but I can tell you one thing, I do NOT intend to do it again.  Summer, perhaps.  January. No.  Big, emphatic no.

As we near the one year mark I'm thinking that we should probably be missing "home" a lot more.  But truth is.  We just don't.  Sure, we miss our families, and friends we left behind.  I miss Sunday, Wednesday and sometimes Monday girls' night with Shan, Steph, and my favorite, Miss Savannah. 

But now, Alaska is home.  It is truly where my heart is, and I have no desire to leave, not yet, not even on vacation.  Don't think that with that admission that doesn't come with guilt, because it does.  Tons of it.  But while I miss Minnesota, I don't miss it enough to go back.  Right now.

I'm looking forward to our first Alaska Christmas.  It's snowing tonight, the most beautiful, powdery, glittery snow.  It coats everything in marshmallowy softness.  Making fallen trees more appealing, and covering mounds of dirt, tires, or what not.  We will indeed have a white, white Christmas. 

We don't have much planned.  Christmas Eve we'll follow the King tradition of Oyster stew (for Brent), and some other kind of soup for me.  I'm planning prime rib roast for Christmas Day, but that's only if we can find it here in Delta.  A little birdie told me that the IGA has some, so I need to call and order tomorrow.  Brent hopes to get in a little rabbit hunting, and I plan to spend the day in my jammies, or relaxing clothes, watching Christmas movies, and staying warm by the fire.

Plans can change, and I'm open to whatever comes our way. 

Wishing you and yours a warm, happy and blessed Christmas!

Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock...

Can you hear it?  The clock keeps ticking away, and I am running out of time. 

Temp: -2F degrees  Sunrise:  10:29 a.m  Sunset:  2:47 p.m.

That's right, we're down to just over 4 hours of light.  Yesterday was the first that I noticed, it could have been that it was so darn gray and gloomy, or that I was home during waking hours.  I don't know, but it wasn't sooo bad.  I guess.

I'm exhausted.  Working so much is really not up my alley.  I've been trying to keep all the balls in the air, but I think I keep dropping some, and I rarely notice any of them, except when I trip over the vacuum cleaner on my way to the dishes in the sink. 

Yesterday I had high hopes of getting loads of things done, the house cleaned, laundry caught up, SASSY stuff organized.  None.  That's what was completed.  Not one thing.  I was beat.  I did a couple loads of laundry, and I cooked, which is something I rarely do anymore, but I certainly did not get accomplished what I set out to do.

I am hosting a Holiday Open House here this weekend, so I'll be super swamped this week.  I was hoping to just buy cookies, but it turns out, I'll most likely have to make them.  I'm not so excited about that either.  I have gifts to send, cards to write, and little time, so I'm hoping you all get your goodies on time.  If not, I'm sorry.  Truly I am.

Wishing you a happy holiday season!  See you soon!

Warm and White

We have been having a great week.  The weather has been warm, in the upper 20's during the day and upper teens at night.  Certainly nothing to complain about, in December, in Central Alaska.  This afternoon the snow started, and mixed with the nearly constant wind, it was quite the little bluster.  I can't say storm, because while it was coming down, it was light and fluffy.  No where near menacing, and awfully pretty.

Now that I'm feeling better I'm in the groove of working more hours again.  Of course, next week will be the real test, since I've had a brief reprieve from my duties at Durham due to malfunctioning equipment, which could in fact, be me. lol.  However, I'm hoping that my good vibes keep flowing and things continue to go well.  We'll see.

Right now we're down to approximately 4.5 hours of light per day.  I would love to be able to report when the sun comes up and goes down, but frankly, I just don't see the sun much, and I can't honestly tell you.  Okay, so I Googled it and Weather City is reporting the sunrise today in Delta was 10:19 a.m. and sunset was at 2:47 p.m.  So there you have it.  Not. Very. Much. Sun.  Truthfully, I don't really notice, and that could totally be because I come and go at dark.  Perpetually.  But hey, maybe it's a good thing for our first full winter in Delta.  I'm just sayin...

Sassy continues to go well and be a heck of a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to getting back to "normal" and having plenty of time to shop, fondle, and ogle my goods.  I got three new boxes of goodies this week, and I'm hoping that I receive at least one or two more by Sunday's party. 

I'll be traveling north to North Pole.  Home of Santa and the Santa Claus House.  Too bad you're not here Mom, we could be having a blast!! :)  Oh well, I guess Santa can wait, a little while longer.  So I'll travel north to sell my wares, and I am so excited.  It sounds like we'll have a fairly large group of ladies, and the excitement that comes along with that is always high.  Awesome.

I have unfortunately been continuing my moose drought.  I swear, everyone else has seen them everywhere, even Delta's albino moose, which you can see here, on the daily photos.  Magnificent.  I'd settle for a small brown one.  REALLY. Do we remember last winter's drought, except now, I'm out and about at least 4x a day.  Ugh!

For some reason having less time has made me more productive in every portion of my life.  I guess that would make sense since I'm a procrastinator, so I have less time to procrastinate, sleep, or frankly, even breathe. Ha!

We are unfortunately still Christmas tree free.  My home is seriously lacking in holiday spirit and I'm hoping to repair that issue this weekend.  We'll see how that works out for me.  Since I'll be gone most of the day I'm thinking we may end up with a fake tree and a pine auto freshener.  You know, that classy little tree that we all know and love.

Tonight Brent is out playing with the boys, watching football on a really big tv, which is a luxury that he rarely never gets to enjoy.  So I'm happy that he was able to take some time and help Joe celebrate his 50th birthday!! 

Tomorrow night I'm spending some much needed time with my girls.  My Durham girls.  I'm really looking forward to catching up, and I know that they're looking forward to rifling through the newest additions to my lovely little collection of goodies. I have to admit, I'm looking forward to it too.  I love it.  All of it. 

So, that means I need to go to bed.  I'm sleepy, Ches is sleepy, and my clothes are ready to hit the dryer. 

G'Night!! See you on the flip side.